Pak 36 from Rubicon

 The Panzerabwehrkanone 36, aka the Pak 36, was the main anti-tank gun of the german Wehrmacht at the start of WWI, and was the counterpart of the French 25 mm Hotchkiss and the British 2-pdr QF anti-tank artillery.  I picked up this Rubicon Models version from Imperial Hobbies.

The model comes with 5 crew.  Hooray!  Most AT guns from other companies only come with 3!  And 5 is what Wikipedia lists as the correct number of crew (and yes, I know what is said about relying on Wikipedia, but this is just a hobby, so Wikipedia is good enough for me).  Of course, Chain of Command calls for Junior Leader PLUS 5 crew, so I made up an extra crewman from the Perry Miniatures DAK box.

The Perry DAK figure fits in nicely with the Rubicon figures.  The kit also includes several ammunition boxes, which I based thinking they may make good markers, maybe for a scenario with limited ammo.

All in all, hope this will be a helpful counterpart to allied armour.

German supply wagon

 Clearing through some of my incomplete projects, I found this Rubicon Models wagon.  It's a nice little kit, although lacking in some of the usual bonus materials that usually come with Rubicon kits.  The kit contains only the wagon and horses, with no driver or cargo.  Those are available separately, but in this case I simply assembled a load from my bits box and recruited a seated German infantryman from another project.

The kit comes with an option of either a single horse or two horse harness.  I initially had an idea of rigging up the traces and reins, but after I figured out that the reason it had gone back into the box was that I had more important things to do than rig up harnesses (actually, it's really hard for me to think of anything LESS important to me right now!), I decided to finish it up quickly so that it can join the rest of my WWII German equipment.

   

Brigadier Chris Vokes and a Dingo

 I picked up the Perry Miniatures Daimler Dingo, because it's a neat little armoured car and I wanted one.  I decided that the commander figure that comes with the Dingo looks like Chris Vokes, who was the Brigadier commanding 2 Canadian Infantry Brigade (2CIB) during Operation Husky.  I understand that Brigadier Vokes had a jeep during Op Husky, so I re-purposed a Rubicon jeep that I'd done previously and assigned it to the brig.

The jeep should have Brigadier Vokes' pennant, which was a grizzly bear on a blue background.  This pennant was the result of a competition launched by Vokes to inspire the 2CIB's morale, to give the brigade an emblem.

Now here is the Dingo.  The vehicle commander is also a Perry Miniature, brought in to replace Brigadier Vokes.  Hugo was the name of a Dingo serving with the Three Rivers Regiment.  However, I've cheated here, the '172' number is actually assigned to 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade HQ, rather than the TRR.  But I'm banking on the idea that no one will notice ;^) 

Posing for the cameras:  the Dingo crew are reporting to the 2CIB commander.

Another CMP

 I stopped by Imperial Hobbies for their annual spring sale, and came away with a second Rubicon CMP truck.  To make this one a little different, I built it without the canvas canopy.  

I gave this truck markings for the 1st Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment.  It could serve as a tractor for the 6-pdr AT gun if I end up needing one.  I know that the 6-pdrs were generally towed by Loyd carriers, but I'm certain the gunners would have used whatever was available.  The US Army used the similar Dodge 'Beep' to tow their 57 mm AT guns!

Armourama

I've managed to accumulate a few new vehicle models for Op Husky, or possibly for later in the Italian Campaign.  In addition to the Panzer IV that I painted previously, the Germans now have a Panzer III, a Tiger I and a beutepanzer Stug M42 (more commonly known by its Italian name, Semovente da 75/18.

The Tiger is from Warlord Games:

Here is the Panzer III.  As far as I can tell, German soldiers didn't name their tanks quite as regularly as Allied soldiers did, but I've decided to name my Panzers III and IV.

The M42 Stug was not used in Sicily by the Germans (although the Italians certainly had some) but once the Italians withdrew from the war in September 1943, the Wehrmacht appropriated any Italian vehicles that they could get their hands on. This model is from Warlord Games.  The kit can be built either as the M41/14 Medium Tank or as the Semovente da 75/18.  Unlike my usual boring plain dunkelgelb paint scheme, I attempted a fairly sloppy camouflage pattern based on this image from Tanks Encyclopedia:

The Canadians meanwhile now have 4 (count 'em, 4) Shermans, of various marks.

The above tanks are from left to right, Sherman V (M4A4), Sherman III (M4A2), Sherman I (M4) and Sherman V (M4A4).  I can barely tell the various marks apart, but I'm slowly learning!

Cyclops is a Sherman V, from Warlord Games.  As I was assembling the model, I realised that I didn't have as much stowage as I wanted, so I looked around for some other options.  Many WWII tankers welded spare track around their tanks to provide some extra protection from anti-tank (AT) weapons.  

This was generally discouraged by the higher ups, but that never stopped the crews from doing whatever it took for them to at least feel safer!  In order to make my own extra track armour, I learnt how to make a press mould from modelling putty.

And here is how the press mould tracks look on the finished model.  This one is Cyclops, a Sherman V from Warlord Games.

Chief is a Sherman I, from Rubicon.  

Corvette is a Rubicon Sherman V.  I assembled the 17-pdr turret as well as the regular 75 mm turret, so that there'd be an option to field Corvette as a Firefly version if I so choose.  Although theoretically the Firefly turret can fit on any of the 3 Rubicon tanks (Chief, Corvette or Cobault), I piled on so much stowage on the other two Shermans that the extended turret can't rotate properly!

Chief is a Rubicon Sherman I.

In addition, the Canadians also gained a couple of softskins. The jeep is straightforward, simply the Rubicon Models model.  However, I cheated a bit on the driver and passenger:  the crew figures that came with the model were American, but I did a couple of head swaps and painted them to match my Canuck infantry.  The white-on-red '56' insignia on the jeep shows that it belongs to the Hasty Ps, but I've given the crew tam-o-shanters (as i had a few in the bits box) so they are more likely to be Seaforths or 48th Highlanders than Plough Jockeys!

What's up with the pink stain on the driver's back?  I'd better cover that up...

The Chevy 30 cwt MCP is most famous nowadays for being the transport of preference of the LRDG, however the reason it was available for use in desert raiding was that it was present in large numbers in the Mediterranean theatre.  While the story of the Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) trucks is pretty well know, with over half a million produced for the war effort, the Modified Conventional Pattern (MCP) trucks are now a bit obscure.  These were basically civilian trucks that were adopted for military use.  For my force, I simply took the Rubicon Models Chevrolet 1533x2 1.5-ton 4x2 truck, which is intended to represent the type in LRDG service, and simply painted it to match the other vehicles in my collection.

I kept the stripped down cab, as reinstating a covered cab would require modelling skillz beyond my meagre capacity.  Vehicle markings are for the 3rd Canadian Field Company, RCE, with the intent that this truck will be a support vehicle for my sappers.  That will also provide the justification for the stripped down cab - the engineers needed to get the truck into some tight space or other!

And here they are with the CMP 15 cwt that I already had.